


When The Stars Look Down On Me (What Do They See?)

by Lilsciencequeen



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 4x13, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bittersweet, Bittersweet Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Leo Fitz is too pure and perfect for this world, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-23 04:53:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9641507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilsciencequeen/pseuds/Lilsciencequeen
Summary: “Jems,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. “If this is about today and nearly getting blown up I'm sorry.”She shook her head into his shirt. It was already damp with her tears and it was another moment before she spoke, her voice low and broken. “No. No. It’s not that. It’s...” She took a shaking breath as if trying to compose herself. “It’s. Dad. He passed. He passed away this morning.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be just a short after 4x13 but it escalated. Because me. Just a little warning there's a minor character death in this and its sad. Like really sad. Hope you enjoy despite this! Title from Imagine Dragons _Thief_.

Jemma was already in their room when he entered, sitting under the covers and reading something on her tablet. Maybe the report from that day, containing the debrief. He wasn't sure. But her eyes were rimmed with red and they were puffy. She had been crying. And it didn’t take him long to climb into the beside her.

“Jems,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. “If this is about today and nearly getting blown up I'm sorry.”

She shook her head into his shirt. It was already damp with her tears and it was another moment before she spoke, her voice low and broken. “No. No. It's not that. It’s...” She took a shaking breath as if trying to compose herself. “It’s. Dad. He passed. He passed away this morning.”

And she was crying into him again, as if what had happened finally registered with her. They were heart wrenching sobs. Sobs he never wanted to hear from her. He knew her father had been gravely ill for a while now but this. He couldn't believe it. He has no idea of the emotions that would be going through her and he knew no words that could be said to her. Not now. So he held her and allowed her to cry and eventually she fell asleep, her face red and blotchy.

***

The next morning came, and Fitz had managed to get them time off so that Jemma could home and mourn the loss of her father, though Coulson hadn’t been overly happy about giving it to them. Yes, she had suffered a major loss, but with Mace now also missing, they needed as many people as they could. Fitz had simply argued that Jemma was better off at home, that she wouldn’t be able to work. Not now. And Fitz wasn’t leaving her side. Not at all.

“How is she?” Daisy asked as she entered the kitchen. Fitz turned from his place in front of the counter where he was making tea.

He shrugged. “We’re flying out tonight. Funeral’s the day after tomorrow. And we’ll be back halfway through next week.” He lifted both mugs and set a plate of fruit on top of it. Jemma hadn’t wanted to eat. Said that she couldn’t but Fitz had told her to try. If she could. That eating something, even something small might help her. Might make the flight easier. Plus she had been throwing up all morning.

Daisy nodded. “Was he… what was her father like?”

Fitz sighed, thinking back to all the memories he had had with Jemma’s father. “Honestly, he’s one of the best men I’ve ever known. He always, he always supported Jemma, no matter what. He stayed with her the whole time she was in hospital when she was recovering from her scoliosis surgery,” he trailed off, losing himself in his thoughts. He was also mourning, of course he was. Jemma’s family was like a second family to him, and to lose someone… it hurt.

“He sounds amazing,” Daisy said, wanting to be supportive, to be there for her friends. But she knew what Jemma was like when she was mourning, something that she shouldn’t. Something that no one should know because someone who had as good a heart as Jemma shouldn’t have it destroyed so many times. And Daisy knew she liked to be alone, with only Fitz for company at times. “Just tell her… tell her I’m here for her. She doesn’t have to grieve alone. That she _shouldn’t_ have to. Tell her I’m here for her.”

Fitz nodded. “Thanks. I will.” And with that, he took the plate of fruit and the two mugs of tea and headed back to their bunk.

***

When they got to her childhood home, most of her family and her extended family where there, most of whom he knew, along with a group of people that he didn’t know.

“Work buddies,” Jemma whispered into his ear. She was leaning close to him, and he had his arm wrapped around her, showing her that he was there for her. No matter what.

Then the first person came up to Jemma, before either of them had a chance to speak again. “Jemma,” he said. He looked about sixty, about the same age as Jemma’s father. “I am so sorry. How are you?”

She bit her lip before speaking. “Honestly, I don’t know.”

The older man nodded. “If you need anything, just know me and Judy are here for you.”

“Thank you,” Jemma said, blinking back the tears.

The older man nodded, then saw someone else and walked away, but not before apologising again.

“We don’t have to stay here,” Fitz offered, whispering into Jemma’s ear as she guided him through the house to the kitchen where there were plates of snacks set out. “We can go upstairs if you want. No one’s going to mind.”

Jemma shook her head, and lifted a plate of sausage rolls to herself. Then she turned her attention to one of the mini flumes of champagne that had been left out, her father’s favourite of course, and lifted one. And immediately set it down, groaning in disgust.

“Jems?” Fitz asked. “You okay?”

She nodded, surprised by the act of disgust herself as the champagne had always been one of her favourites. “Just…” she shrugged. “I don’t know.”

He placed a kiss to her temple, and she leaned her head against his shoulder. “You’ll be okay. I know you.”

She blinked once, twice, the tears streaming down her face. And she had no idea what to say, how to respond. So she settled on, “I love you.”

***

It was night. The funeral had come and gone. It had been a simple affair, with his family and friends there, and Fitz had forgotten just how big her family was. Having come from a small family himself, it was odd seeing so many aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins. He just hated that it was a funeral that he was meeting them all again, or for the first time.

It shouldn’t have been that way.

But, as the Universe dictated, it was.

And when Jemma got up to speak, she reduced everyone who wasn’t already crying to tears and Fitz couldn’t help but feel more than a bit proud of her. His girlfriend. The most beautiful, brilliant and intelligent woman that he had ever met, and gotten to know. Sometimes he wondered what he had ever done to deserve her.

Once she joined him again, during the funeral, he pulled her in close and pressed another kiss to her temple. “I’m proud of you.”

But back in her house, the place shrouded in darkness, he realised that the bed was empty and that he was alone.

He threw on a hoodie and climbed out of the bed himself. He made his way across the room, and looked out the window, and saw Jemma right where he was expecting her.

Lying in the back garden, looking up at the stars.

It took him less than five minutes to join her, lying on the grass, drops of dew starting to form and soaking his back.

“Thought I’d find you here,” he said, as she moved her head to lie on his chest.

“Dad told me about the stars, inspired my love of them. We spent so many nights here. I thought it would be fitting.”

“It’s perfect,” Fitz whispered. “What star do you think he is?”

Jemma frowned, looking hard at the night sky. “I don’t know,” she replied.

“That one,” Fitz decided, picking out the brightest one and pointing. “It’s definitely him.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. He lit up everything, your world. Of course he would be the brightest star.”

“There’s so much I wish I told him,” Jemma said, her voice laced with sadness. “I wanted to tell him… I wanted to tell him he’d be a grandfather…”

“You’re pregnant?” Fitz asked.

She nodded. “I am. Just about three months. I’m sorry Fitz. I didn’t want you to know, not this way.”

“Nah,” he replied, taking her hand in his own. “It doesn’t matter. So we’re going to be parents?”

She laughed at this, despite all that had happened, finally taking in all that had happened. “We’re going to be parents.”

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You’re going to be an amazing mum.”

“And you’re going to be the best father that anyone could ever ask for.”

“You think that?”

She sat up, and spun so that she was facing him. He sat up also. “I _know_ that,” she confirmed, leaning in and kissing him. “I just wish dad knew.”

Fitz nodded. “He probably did. If we went to see him two months ago, he probably worked it out. I remember you just eating all the time when we were here. So very unlike you. Your parents were always better at knowing than us, heck, they thought we were dating and in love years before we even knew.”

Jemma laughed again, shaking her head. “They did.” She leaned in and kissed him. “Thank you.”

“For what?” he asked, once she had shuffled around and sat beside him, her head falling against his shoulder naturally.

“For coming here, you didn’t have to.”

“Nonsense,” he replied. “Course I did. Why wouldn’t I?” A beat and no reply so Fitz continued. “Do you want to watch the sunrise? We’ve not had a chance to do that in a while.”

Jemma nodded. “Yeah.”

And so they did, sitting there in the garden together, until the first light of day lit them up, talking about all that had happened and all that was to come.

Their lives.

Their future.

Just them.

Fitzsimmons.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where this all came from. It just happened so I went with the flow. Thanks for checking out and I hope that you enjoy. Also, I now have Instagram, under agentsofsuperwholocked if you want to check that out. Sometimes I'm hip on it.


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